The leaves of house plants of many varieties should be regularly sprayed with a water mist to both provide water to the plant and to clean foreign matter from the plant leaves. Since house plants are normally employed in the interior of a house for decorative purposes in locations closely adjacent drapes, rugs, and expensive furniture, it has normally been necessary to move each house plant to a sink or a similar location to accomplish spraying of the leaves.
To alleviate the tedious and time consuming job of moving each house plant to a separate location to be sprayed and then returning the house plant to its original location, various means have been developed for shielding the house plant while it is sprayed in place. For example, plant shower curtains have been provided similar to that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,681,872, to enclose the plant in a hollow cylindrical curtain while spraying takes place. However, after the plant has been sprayed, it is necessary to mop up excess water which has been permitted to accumulate around the plant within the curtain.
To rectify the excess water problem prevalent with plant shower curtains, mist shields with water gathering troughs formed intergral therewith have been developed. Such a mist shield is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,052,815 to Clark, and has proven very effective in both shielding a plant during misting and retaining the excess water which impinges upon the shield. However, mist shields of the known type have required that frequent trips be made to a sink or drain remotely located from the plants being misted so that the excess water gathered in the shield trough can be discharged. Normally, where a substantial number of plants are involved, a number of trips must be made to discharge the collected water, and consequently, the advantage of the mist shield in permitting plants to be misted in place without removal to a remote location is somewhat lessened. Additionally, with conventional mist shields, it is still necessary to travel between a remote spigot or water source and the plants with a watering can to water the plants after they are misted.